Political prisoner: Muhammad video maker could be sent to jail

If Nakoula Basseley Nakoula gets sent back to jail, no matter what priors he has, no matter how checkered his past, make no mistake: he will be a political prisoner. He will be in prison not for the meth or the fraud or for the technicality of the probation violation, but for insulting Muhammad. His imprisonment will be a symbol of America’s capitulation to the Sharia.

The protests are not about the film. The protests are to intimidate the U.S. into criminalizing criticism of Islam. If Nakoula Basseley Nakoula is imprisoned, he will be nothing more than the fall guy who became the first offender against the new federal crime of blasphemy against Islam.

“Film maker behind anti-Muslim video ‘could be sent back to jail,'” by Nick Allen in the Telegraph, September 14 (thanks to David):

The man behind the anti-Islamic film that sparked violent unrest in the Middle East could be sent back to jail for violating his probation by distributing the movie.

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, has convictions for possessing drugs used to make methamphetamine and bank fraud, a declaration of bankruptcy, demands for unpaid tax bills, and a byzantine network of at least 17 aliases including “Kritbag Difrat” and “PJ Tobacco.”

Nakoula, a balding, married father of three and an Egyptian Coptic Christian, who once owned a petrol station, is believed to have worked on the script for “Innocence of Muslims” in a California jail cell.

Production began weeks after he was released from a halfway house in June last year.

He is currently on probation after serving a year of a 21-month sentence for fraud, which involved obtaining credit cards in the names of other people.

He was also banned from using the internet, computers and email without the approval of a probation officer for five years.

But in July a “Sam Bacile,” believed to be Nakoula, uploaded a 14-minute trailer to YouTube. The California probation department is investigating whether he breached his conditions.

Nakoula is believed to be currently holed up in his four-bedroom house near Los Angeles. Those who know him described a smooth talker who would wear a suit and tie, had no fixed job, and whose ambitions to produce a movie stretched back to at least 2008.

The project was delayed while he went to jail. Actors who had already signed up were told he was ill. The eventual film is believed to have cost $250,000.

One former friend told The Daily Telegraph: “He’s a great con artist. He can cheat anyone and will do anything to make money or find fame.

“He has no ethics at all, zero ethics. He talked a lot. But when you discover his real nature you don’t trust him. I think he made the movie for fame, to be known. I don’t believe he is a religious person. He doesn’t really know God.” In 1997 Nakoula pleaded guilty to possessing drugs used to make methamphetamine and was sentenced to three years probation and community service. At the time, police said they found a receipt for pseudophedrine and $45,000 cash in a paper bag….

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